Microsoft tells me they don’t plan to issue a “recommended” hardware configuration for Windows 7, because the company believes there are too many varied uses to cover, and that any such statement would be too complex. The company also claims its minimum requirements have proved “generous” enough to cover most cases during the year of widespread testing of pre-release versions.

The minimum required hardware for Windows 7 is as follows: a 1 gigahertz or faster 32-bit or 64-bit processor; 1 gigabyte of memory for the 32-bit version of Windows 7 or 2 GB for the 64-bit version; and 16 GB of available hard disk space for 32-bit or 20 GB for 64-bit. In addition, Windows 7 will require a graphics card or integrated graphics chip that is compatible with at least Microsoft’s DirectX 9 graphics system and at least the 1.0 version of its graphics driver standard called WDDM (Windows Display Driver Model).

More details are at: windows.microsoft.com/systemrequirements. I would suggest at least doubling the memory Microsoft recommends, not because I believe the company is lying, but to give yourself some headroom as your needs and interests grow.

I have used Mac laptops for the past 15 years, and am in the market for a new machine. When it comes to computers, I’m not “the sharpest knife in the drawer,” and I only use my laptop for very simple, basic tasks. What new laptop would you recommend? I do not desire or need exceptional file storage, graphic capability or any other esoteric spec.

You could get a cheap, small Windows laptop called a netbook, which would meet your simple needs. Acer, Asus, Lenovo and others make good ones. But I’m not sure that’s the best choice for you, given your self-description. If you’re a longtime Mac user, and you are used to the Mac, I’d suggest you consider sticking with it, because any netbook would require you to learn a new operating system and new software, even for simple tasks. Mac laptops are excellent machines, with a great operating system and built-in software. The only negative is cost, which you didn’t mention as a criterion. Apple doesn’t make bargain laptops. The cheapest Mac laptop, at $999, costs about triple what you could pay for a netbook.

I would like to change my Internet Service Provider (ISP), but fear doing so, since the task of informing all my email contacts of the new address seems grossly laborious. Are you aware of any utility available that will perform this task accurately?

The only one I ever tested is called TrueSwitch, and is available at trueswitch.com. It is a service that copies all your email, address books, calendar entries and bookmarks from the old ISP to the new one; notifies everyone in your address book of your new email address; and even forwards email from your old address to your new one for 30 days. It costs $20, but is free if you are switching to certain services, including Yahoo or Comcast.

One caveat: My test of TrueSwitch occurred five years ago, and, while it worked well then, I can’t be certain that it still does.

You can find Mossberg’s Mailbox, and my other columns, online for free at the All Things Digital Web site, http://walt.allthingsd.com.

In your review of Amazon’s Kindle 2 e-book reader, you didn’t say much about its ability to display newspapers, magazines and blogs. How does it do with this type of content?

The new model’s handling of periodicals and blogs is quite similar to that of the old model’s, which is why I didn’t dwell on it. This wasn’t an area where Amazon changed much.

While I know some Kindle owners happily rely on the device for newspaper reading, in my opinion, the Kindle doesn’t do as well with periodicals and blogs as devices like laptops and the best smart phones. Its ability to render the content optimally is limited by its low-power monochrome screen, and its navigation system is fairly primitive compared to that on a laptop or a good smart phone. Kindle’s features were built mainly for books, which, unlike periodicals, don’t contain links and prompt little navigation in most pages.

Whenever I watch an Internet movie, the monitor on my desktop Vista PC shuts off every 10 minutes unless I touch the keyboard. How can I solve this problem?

Unless your monitor has its own feature that turns itself off after some time period, this is usually easily controllable from within Vista. You simply need to go into the Control Panel, find the power settings, and set the option for automatically turning off the display to “never,” or to some very long interval. Remember to re-enable the screen dimming feature after you’re done with the movie, so you don’t waste energy. If this doesn’t work, check to see if the manufacturer has installed its own software for controlling power settings. If so, you may have to change the settings there.

I am retired and would like to buy a small, wireless computer for travel that would have email and Internet software and very few other applications. The keyboard would be bigger than a Blackberry’s and smaller than a laptop’s. Can you recommend something?

I would look for a so-called “netbook.” These are little laptops, with screens generally 10 inches or smaller, that usually weigh almost nothing and sell for under $500. They typically come with relatively slow processors and relatively limited storage, but every one that I’ve seen is wireless and does a decent job with email and the Internet. There are many models, from companies like Acer, Asus, Hewlett Packard, Lenovo and Dell.

• You can find Mossberg’s Mailbox, and my other columns, online free of charge at the new All Things Digital Web site, http://walt.allthingsd.com.

There’s no other major item most of us own that is as confusing, unpredictable and unreliable as our personal computers. Everybody has questions about them, and we aim to help.

Here are a few questions about computers I’ve received recently from people like you, and my answers. I have edited and restated the questions a bit, for readability.

Last week you discussed how to uninstall Windows Vista and go back to Windows XP. But I own a Macintosh, and after upgrading to the new Leopard operating system from Tiger, I find I dislike Leopard. How can I uninstall Leopard and go back to Tiger?

To restore the older Tiger operating system after upgrading to Leopard, you should first find the Tiger DVD that came with your Mac. Insert it and reboot your Mac while holding down the “C” key. This will boot the computer from the DVD rather than your hard disk.

On the screen that shows available hard drives for installation, click on the Options button and select the “Archive & Install” option. Also, select the choice called “Preserve Users & Network Settings.” If you have enough free disk space (roughly six gigabytes), Tiger will be reinstalled and your home directory and applications should be preserved.

However, just as with Windows, performing such an operating system “downgrade” on a Mac can be tricky for a nontechnical user. You might want to hire an expert to do it. If you do decide to try it yourself, I strongly urge you to first read an Apple document that contains more details, including some potential pitfalls and limitations of the “Archive and Install” procedure. It’s at http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=107120.

Occasionally, I try to download a song or artist that would be in the “Easy Listening” category, but neither iTunes nor Amazon lists that genre. How can I find them?

In the iTunes store, there is indeed a genre called “Easy Listening” that contains thousands of tracks. The problem is that it’s not listed on the front page of the store. To find “Easy Listening” and the songs it contains, select “Browse” from the box labeled “Quick Links” at the upper right on the store’s front page. Then click “Music” in the far left column and “Easy Listening” in the column labeled “Genre.”

In Amazon’s MP3 download service, I couldn’t find a listing for the “Easy Listening” genre. But some of the songs and artists you’re looking for could be listed under other categories. Try directly searching for an artist’s name or a song title in the search box at the top of the MP3 Downloads page.

Why isn’t a FireWire port included on either of the two new slim laptops you recently reviewed, the Lenovo ThinkPad X300 and the Apple MacBook Air?

Both laptops are so small that they can only include a limited number of ports, though the Lenovo has many more than the Apple. And standard FireWire, also known as “1394″ or “iLink” on some machines, is becoming redundant in mainstream consumer computers, since the USB 2.0 ports offer roughly the same speed and are compatible with many more devices. There is a faster version of FireWire, which Apple uses on most of its desktop models. But there is also a faster version of USB in the works.

You can find Mossberg’s Mailbox, and my other columns, online free of charge at the new All Things Digital Web site, http://walt.allthingsd.com.

Corrections and Amplifications

Due to incorrect information provided by the manufacturer, this column erroneously says that Macintosh users performing a “downgrade” from Apple’s new Leopard operating system to the older Tiger system should select an option called “Preserve Users & Network Settings.” In fact, that option isn’t available when installing an older version of the operating system over a newer one. Users must instead manually relocate their data files and settings after performing the downgrade, a process that is explained at this Web page: http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=107297.

Can you recommend a device that would allow me to surf the Web on a bedroom television connected via Ethernet and to control the device via a wireless keyboard or remote control?

Perhaps the most direct approach would be to buy the MSN TV 2 device from Microsoft that is specifically meant for browsing the Web on a TV from a distance and can be used with Ethernet. It costs $200, plus a monthly fee, comes with a wireless keyboard and remote, and can be ordered at msntv.com.

A second option would be to buy a small computer with a wireless keyboard and hook it up to the bedroom TV instead of to a computer monitor. For instance, I have surfed the Web this way using a tiny $599 Mac Mini computer from Apple, which comes with a wireless remote and accepts almost any wireless keyboard, though it doesn’t come with one. There are numerous Windows computers that could do the same, and many cost less, though most are larger.

Another method would be to use a game console capable of surfing the Web, even if you have no intention of playing games. These are made to work with TV sets, and some can use a wireless keyboard and/or wireless controller to do the job. For instance, the $250 Nintendo Wii game machine has an optional Web-browsing function.

Apple has released a Windows beta version of Safari. Is it any safer to use than Microsoft’s Internet Explorer?

It’s too early to tell, as the Windows version of Safari is still in beta and is very new, to users and hackers alike.

Certainly, operating in Windows will make Safari much more vulnerable to attack than it is on the Macintosh operating system, if only because the writers of malicious software aim their firepower overwhelmingly at Windows. While Internet Explorer is hardly impregnable, it has become safer over the years, and Microsoft certainly has much more experience battling Windows security issues than Apple does. Apple has already issued some security updates for this new version of Safari and will undoubtedly have to keep issuing more to keep ahead of the bad guys.

I am thinking of buying a ThinkPad laptop from Lenovo with AT&T BroadbandConnect. Do I still need to buy some sort of card from AT&T and insert it into the laptop, and must I pay a subscription fee to them?

No, and yes. The laptop likely has the modem for AT&T built in, so you can connect to the Internet via AT&T’s cellular network without buying an external card. However, the service isn’t free. You can’t use it without a subscription, which typically runs $60 a month.

You can find Mossberg’s Mailbox, and my other columns, online free of charge at the new All Things Digital Web site, http://walt.allthingsd.com.

Write to Walter S. Mossberg at mossberg@wsj.com

Here are a few questions about computers I’ve received recently from people like you, and my answers. I have edited and restated the questions a bit, for readability. This week my mailbox contained questions about whether to buy a smart phone now or wait for the iPhone, boosting the range of a wireless connection, and removing junk programs that come with a new computer.

I am in the market for a new smart phone. Should I wait for the Apple iPhone? When will it be available and when will you review it?

Apple says the iPhone is on track to go on sale in “late June,” and I expect to be able to test it and publish a review around that time. There will also be many other reviews around then that you can consult.

I stand by my earlier advice, which is that people shopping for a smart phone, who can wait until then, and who could imagine shelling out $499–the iPhone’s base price–should wait to read the reviews of Apple’s first phone and take a look at it before making a decision. However, if you need a smart phone now, or can’t imagine spending that much, then you can ignore the hype and buy a BlackBerry, or a Treo, or another competitor.

Three other key factors could also make you reasonably ignore the iPhone. It will lack a physical keyboard, relying on virtual keys that appear on the screen, so if you prefer a real keyboard, the iPhone would be a nonstarter for you. Also, it will only work on the AT&T wireless network (formerly Cingular) in the U.S. So, if you prefer another wireless carrier, forget the iPhone. Finally, it will only operate on a relatively slow network technology, called EDGE, so if you want a smart phone that operates on the fastest cellular networks, the iPhone is the wrong choice, even though it will also include Wi-Fi wireless networking.

The wireless connection to my wife’s Windows XP computer keeps going down. The computer is about 75 feet (but through three walls) from my Dell Truemobile 2300 router. Should I assume I need a better, more powerful router? And, finally, will it also connect to my MacBook Pro laptop?

A more powerful router might help, but wireless reception varies greatly depending on home construction and layout. You might look for a new router that features a technology called MIMO, which I have found in my tests can improve both speed and range. Even with a new router, you might also have to move its location. There are also various boosters and repeaters that can be used, though some of these require more technical expertise to install than most folks have.

One good method for extending the range of a wireless connection is to buy a set of so-called powerline adapters. These carry your network signal over plain old electrical lines, and some models allow you to create a wireless network by plugging a wireless router into such an adapter in a distant room. I described these adapters in more detail in a column you can find at: ptech.allthingsd.com/20060817/powerline-adapters-access.

In my own home, I have used both MIMO routers, and powerline adapters, successfully with mixtures of Windows and Apple Macintosh computers, including the MacBook Pro, and various Dell, Lenovo and Hewlett-Packard laptops.

Can I remove the junk programs that came with my new computer–the ones you call “craplets”–by using the “Add or Remove Programs” control panel in Windows?

Yes, but that is a tedious manual process and may not get them all. Also, in Windows Vista, that control panel has been renamed and is now called “Programs and Features.”

Instead, I would suggest first downloading and running a free program specifically designed to eliminate craplets, the crippled trial programs and advertising come-ons that are now packed into so many new Windows PCs. This program is called “The PC Decrapifier” and can be found at pcdecrapifier.com. If this program misses a few of the junk items you want gone, you can then use the manual method.

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Because of the volume of email I receive, I can’t routinely answer individual questions by email, or consult on individual problems or purchasing decisions. I read all questions I receive and select three each week to answer in the column.

Write to Walter S. Mossberg at mossberg@wsj.com